Panic is what panic feels like

School on Monday. I am seriously fucked.

Bicol express

Last week (why I always start my travel entries this way, I don't know), I went to the Bicol region, particularly the provinces of Albay, Sorsogon, and Camarines Sur, for a short holiday.

It was rather beautiful, if not for the torrential rains that crippled us most of the time. Spending hours in cramped vans and nights in crazy hotels with scary bathrooms isn't so bad when you've got Styx (think "Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto!" at 7 am repeatedly) and family with you, I've learned.

I took almost 300 pictures, but I'd rather post them bit by bit rather than in one big jizz of a post. Right above is a photo of Mt. Mayon, one of the most famous peaks in the world, which greets you as you get off the plane in Legazpi airport.

The Hunger Games trilogy: the ditziest review you'll ever read online

I finished the Hunger Games trilogy a few months ago.

I was a little apprehensive about liking this book, because I seem to be developing vestiges of the same affection I held for Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight saga. While I don’t deny that yes, I read Twilight and that I actually enjoyed it, I wasn’t so hot on the idea of the Hunger Games turning into a clusterfuck of poor movie adaptations and even poorer casting choices.

The premise, I’d have to say, is good. It’s kind of like 1984 meets a whole bunch of post-apocalyptic books for young adults, and not in a cheaply done way. It’s full of action, it’s quite violent, and not at all saccharine.

I don’t know about you, though, but a girl can only take so much craziness. I also didn’t like how Suzanne Collins kept the emotional scenes very brief; although I understand that the narrator (Katniss Everdeen) is very EQ-deficient, I really think that there is still a lot of room to draw out the heart of every tender moment that doesn’t remove the book’s overall badassery.

This may not be a popular opinion, but I really do not like Katniss. From her, I realized, stems my anxiety about the Hunger Games turning into sci-fi Twilight. While she’s not as idiotic as Bella, she becomes so freaking annoying when she makes out with Peeta but loves Gale, kisses Gale but feels bad, then realizes that she’s a cold-hearted bitch when both Peeta and Gale acknowledge that she doesn’t actually give a damn about any of them. Okay, it’s true, there’s a war and shit. BUT COME ON. I think we can spare a few pages of you making an actual decision about who to like in between starting a rebellion and killing the president with your mad archery skills.

Speaking of, I’m just gonna put this out there: Peeta Mellark is a babe. When he makes these absolutist statements such as “you are the only reason I live for” and yaddi yaddi yadda, I get a little peeved, but I can’t help it. He’s too adorable. I really hate myself for liking this boy. I really do.

To be honest, I skipped a lot of parts in Mockingjay because I only looked out for the parts where Peeta and Katniss interacted. And I may or may not have teared up in the scene where Haymitch censures Katniss, who begins being a total bitch to Peeta after he got poisoned by the Capitol (causing him to say really mean things to her and to actually try to kill her), and said that if she were the one who got poisoned, Peeta would do everything he could to make her better. IDK. I am such a sucker, really.

I’m not so sure if the disappointment I got from reading this is because of the praises I used to keep hearing, but I thought it was okay. Maybe it’s just not my kind of thing. I’d hate to be a Katniss (i.e. a bitch), but I’m kind of glad I didn’t have to legit buy copies of my own. Would have regretted it, to be honest.